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December 30, 2013

Updated: Dog attack fatality in Arizona

Updated 12/30:

As expected, there is a little more to the story. According to a report from the Las Vegas Review Journal, the fight originally broke out between the family's 40 pound 'shepherd' and a 14 lbs Cocker Spaniel. When the fight began, four other dogs owned by the Vicks -- a Boxer named Dempsy and three "boxer mixes" between 45-60 lbs joined the skirmish culminating into a major dog fight.

Vick was in the middle of trying to break up the dog fight when he suffered a bite that cut through his femoral artery. It is believed that Dempsy is the dog that bit him. Vick died from blood loss due to the major artery being cut.

I mentioned this in my facebook page earlier today, that often the difference between a major dog bite, and a fatal one, is the 'unlucky' location of the bite. It appears that that is the case here as well.

It also helps us understand how both Vick and his wife Denise were so badly injured with there being 6 dogs involved instead of just the two.

All 5 dogs will be euthanized. The Cocker Spaniel apparently died due to injuries sustaining in the attack.

My heart goes out to the Vick family. This sounds like a really horrible situation to have been a part of.

Original Post:

Over the weekend, there was another dog-bite related fatality.

Before I get into the event, and the causal factors for the event, I do want to remind everyone that dogs are incredibly safe. There are around 75 million owned dogs in this country, and every year only around 30 are involved in a fatal incident. These incidents almost always involve a perfect storm of problems that led up to the attack. This case is no different.

In the incident, Thomas Vick Sr., 64, died from wounds caused by his own dog. Vick's wife, Diane, is a former mayor of Bullhead City, AZ.

According to the reports, Vick's dog, described as a Boxer, got into a fight with his other dog, a Cocker Spaniel. Both Thomas and Diane tried to break up the fight between the two dogs when the Boxer redirected toward the owners -- biting both of them. Thomas died due to his injuries.

Diane is recovering from her injuries at a medical center in Las Vegas.

While this type of occurrance isn't typical of how the majority of fatal dog attacks occur, I see how this happens. Sibling rivalry among dogs isn't terribly uncommon -- particularly in cases where resource guardng may occur (over food, toys, bones). If people are not familiar with how to stop a bite like this (ie, try to never get our body between the dogs, but try to use another oblect like a trash can lid, or something in between them) it can be pretty easy to put oneself in harm's way.

This story has been picked up by the Associated Press and is being fairly widely distributed already. Hopefully more information will be made available once Diane is healthy enough to talk about the incident.

Bullhead City is not a rich community, with more than 25% of its residents living below the poverty line. However, it is probably unlike that the Vick's, who held a prominent place in the community were among the high percentage of the population that was poor.